Archive for the ‘ Republicans ’ Category

The beaches of Maui are a popular destination for California lawmakers. (Irene Lechowitzky)

By Patrick McGreevy and Taryn Luna Mar 05, 2019 | 12:45 PM

| Sacramento

California lawmakers were showered with more than $810,000 in gifts last year, many from powerful interest groups lobbying the state who handed out concert and professional sports tickets, spa treatments, gourmet dinners and trips to a dozen countries, new state reports show.

Jim Brulte, chairman of the California Republican Party and a former GOP leader in the state Senate and Assembly.

Party struggled in the former San Bernardino lawmaker’s six years at helm, but he’s credited with rebuilding the party organization

Not that he’s counting down his days to freedom or anything, but Jim Brulte seemed keenly aware that the end of his time as California Republican Party chairman was 11 days away — not 10, not an even dozen — as he sat for an interview Thursday at his house in Fontana.

Now that I finally have some time to do some writing on politics, let’s get to it!

I prefer to render political observations after taking in data from a broad spectrum of sources and feedback. Two years ago it had become pretty clear to me in the final four weeks leading up to the presidential Election that Donald Trump would prevail.

For Chris Mann, the June primary results in California’s 8th Congressional District played out perfectly, when two GOP candidates, incumbent Paul Cook and challenger Tim Donnelly, finished first and second.

The two major Republican candidates in the race to succeed Gov. Jerry Brown are battling for second place to make the November runoff, while Democratic Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom has strengthened his lead, according to a new poll from UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies.

Republicans are increasingly talking about “phase two” of tax cuts — including a permanent extension of the new law’s individual tax cuts — in an effort to highlight their signature legislative accomplishment and force Democrats to take tough votes.

San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan, center, holds a resolution while posing with Assemblyman Marc Steinorth, R-Rancho Cucamonga, and then-Assemblywoman Cheryl Brown, D-San Bernardino, during a 2016 ceremony in Sacramento that honored the first responders to the December 2015 terrorist attack in San Bernardino (Courtesy of Steinorth’s office).

When Republicans in Congress passed the largest tax reform in the last 30 years, the opposition party held press conferences decrying the measure and telling the nation it was actually a big tax increase for the middle class. They referred to it as “Armageddon” and other outlandish descriptions of gloom and doom. Not a single Democrat in either the House of Representatives or the Senate voted for the measure.

Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., rallies in support of the “Dreamers” during a protest on Capitol Hill. (Photo: Jose Luis Magana, Associated Press)

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration’s newly released plan to resolve the fate of young immigrants who arrived in the country illegally as children would constitute the biggest change to immigration policy in decades, putting Democrats and their allies in a painful vise.

San Bernardino County Supervisor James Ramos speaks at the 2016 State of Education address at the California Theatre of the Performing Arts in San Bernardino in this 2016 file photo. (File photo by Rachel Luna, The Sun/SCNG.)

San Bernardino County Supervisor James Ramos has filed paperwork for a potential 2018 run against Inland Assemblyman Marc Steinorth, shaking up the race for a battleground district targeted heavily by Democrats in the last election.

Ramos

Thursday, January 25, 2018 – 10:30 a.m.

The transom is clamoring over San Bernardino County Third District Supervisor James Ramos (D-San Manuel Reservation) gearing up to run in the 40th Assembly District, a seat currently occupied by Marc Steinorth (R-Rancho Cucamonga).

Incensed that Assembly Republican Leader Chad Mayes supported a Democratic plan to renew a key climate change policy, California conservative activists are calling for his resignation and raising allegations of an affair with his predecessor.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Delivering at last, triumphant House Republicans voted Thursday to repeal and replace the “Obamacare” health plan they have reviled for so long, overcoming united Democratic opposition and their own deep divisions to hand a major win to President Donald Trump.

Democrat Kia Hamadanchy announced he’ll run for the 45th Congressional District Thursday, becoming the third Democrat this week to announce plans to challenge Rep. Mimi Walters (R-Irvine) for the seat.

Forty days into his term, the president won acclaim for delivering a presidential speech.

By Edward-Isaac Dovere 03/01/17 – 05:04 AM EST

President Donald Trump cleared a low bar: He read proficiently off a teleprompter, he looked human as he spurred long applause for the widow of the Navy SEAL killed in the raid he ordered, he didn’t get into a shouting match with any Democrats or slip off into a rant about reporters as the enemy of the people.

California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra, seen during a confirmation hearing in January, has emerged as the leading candidate for the post in the 2018 election. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

Patrick McGreevy February 26, 2017

The race for California attorney general in 2018 has been shaken up by the so-called “Trump factor,” with the state’s newly appointed top lawyer, Xavier Becerra, seeing his profile boosted to the national stage by legal challenges to the Republican president.

Jim Brulte hopes to keep a job few would envy: As chairman of the California Republican Party, he’s tasked with trying to steer his party out of the wilderness in one of the bluest states in the nation.

Rep. Norma Torres, D-Pomona, is among a group of Congressional Hispanic Caucus members who said Republicans kicked them out of a meeting with the acting head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Thursday, Feb. 16.

Marv Owen, a delegate from Los Angeles, left, listens to state GOP Chairman Jim Brulte at the California Republican Convention at the Hyatt Hotel in Sacramento in 2013. Randall Benton RBenton@sacbee.com

For Democrats enraged and taking official action Monday to denounce President Donald Trump’s order temporarily banning travel from seven majority-Muslim countries, California Republican Party Chairman Jim Brulte has a message: “This is purely hypocritical, political posturing.”

Former Inland congressional candidate Paul Chabot is leaving for Texas. In a Facebook post, Chabot , a Republican, said he and his family are moving “to find a region of the nation that embraces our values and morals we cherish.” (File)

Rancho Cucamonga Republican Paul Chabot, who ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2014 and 2016, is moving to the Lone Star State – but not before dispensing some harsh words for California progressives.

So far, none of California’s 55 senators and representatives have announced plans to retire ahead of the 2018 election. But after weeks at home with family during the holidays to talk about the future, such declarations could come soon.

Jim Brulte

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By Carla Marinucci 12/22/16 – 06:00 AM EST

SAN FRANCISCO — Jim Brulte, the current chair of the California Republican Party, once served as a high-profile backer of National Popular Vote, a movement that supports the elimination of the Electoral College.

Steve Schmidt, the Republican strategist who advised John McCain’s presidential bid and helped elect Arnold Schwarzenegger governor of California, imagines a not-too-distant future where the GOP here ceases to wield the influence of a major party and instead becomes the state’s largest interest group.

With one exception, Republican elected officials and candidates in Southern California continue to stand by Donald Trump despite his comments about women in 2005 that were widely condemned as boasting about sexual assault.

New York police and security stand outside Trump Tower on, Saturday, Oct. 8, 2016, in New York…. Read more

By Steve Peoples and Jill Colvin Oct. 8, 2016 – 12:39 PM EDT

NEW YORK (AP) — A defiant Donald Trump insisted Saturday he would “never” abandon his White House bid, facing an intensifying backlash from Republican leaders across the nation who called on him to quit the race following the release of his vulgar and sexually charged comments caught on tape.

The acrimony continues in California’s 31st Congressional District, with the campaign of Democratic incumbent Pete Aguilar trying to link Republican Paul Chabot to Donald Trump and Chabot accusing Aguilar of using Chabot’s children in a smear attempt.

Stand-ins for Donald J. Trump, Hillary Clinton and Lester Holt on Sunday at the site of Monday’s presidential debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y. (Credit: Sam Hodgson for The New York Times)

Monday, September 26, 2016 – 09:00 a.m.

The first of three presidential debates between Democrat Nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton Republican Nominee Donald J. Trump will take place at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York on Monday night.

One of the most pervasive myths in American politics is that a “Big Blue Wall” will protect Democratic presidential nominees, perhaps even those who lose the popular vote. In truth, this electoral Blue Wall is more like a collection of disconnected forts—some imposing, some not—and the loss of any one of them would likely doom the Democratic nominee.

Republican Paul Chabot, left, and Democrat Pete Aguilar were all smiles when they greeted each other before a debate at the University of Redlands in October 2014. But their rematch this year has been marked by personal attacks and accusations. (Kurt Miller/File Photo)

“To just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the ‘basket of deplorables,'” Hillary Clinton said at a New York fundraiser on Sept. 9. “They’re racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic, you name it. And unfortunately, there are people like that, and he has lifted them up.”

By Abby Phillip September 9, 2016 at 10:38 PM

Hillary Clinton said Friday that “half” of Donald Trump’s supporters could be grouped in “the basket of deplorables” at a fundraising event in New York City.

Miller resigned from his job with state Board of Equalization member Diane Harkey last month.

The Riverside County Community College District trustee, who sent two tweets featuring a noose-holding hangman and the words “I’m Ready for Hillary,” has agreed to become campaign manager for Riverside County supervisor candidate Shellie Milne, who confirmed his hiring Wednesday afternoon, Sept. 7.

Pollsters are debating whether Donald Trump’s “silent majority” of voters exists, and are scrambling to make sure that their surveys reflect the opinions of voters who might not ordinarily be included in opinion polls.

Players in the Democrat party, talking heads and the so-called GOP establishment (What remains of it!) are starting to up their chorus and pitch as Democrat Nominee Hillary Clinton’s lead rapidly evaporates.

Corona man, who also is a Riverside Community College District board member, admits to sending the tweets

An Inland Republican Party official resigned from his state government job Thursday, Aug. 4, a day after he sent tweets from the party’s official Twitter account that featured a menacing hangman and the words “I’m Ready for Hillary.”

Half of California’s likely Republican voters and a third of independents said they wouldn’t vote for either candidate in the state’s U.S. Senate race this November, according to a new poll by the Public Policy Institute of California.